Her Heartsongs

Joan Colby knows how to take anything familiar and have us read just our view of it. Her energy never flags as she transforms nerves into a tapestry or delves into the structure of a foot and tells stories that go where he would never have exepcted them to go. There is a probing character to so many of her poems as they give up layer upon layer of meaning or suggestion. Such a pairing of imagination with the craft to frame it is a rare gift. -- David Chorlton